I am sympathetic toward the less fortunate, those who lack what they need, those who cannot rid themselves of their afflictions. This isn't always easy, I find it quite difficult to sympathize with those lacking common sense and integrity while suffering from terminal stupidity and willful ignorance but I do try. It is in this spirit of benevolence toward my fellow man that I offer the following advice and information to a large group of Americans suffering greatly from the issues mentioned above. Specifically the lunatic fringe known as the Terroristic Extremist Asshole Party (hereinafter referred to as the TEA Party) and any other like minded (crap, that phrase doesn't apply, it implies a mind) similar thinking (dammit, that one doesn't apply either) followers (that got it!) of their agenda.
First let me state that I understand your anger and hostility regarding Obamacare, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act, I really do. I know that it must be difficult to watch your opposition accomplish something that your own party has repeatedly promised but failed to deliver. It must be even more difficult to accept when that accomplishment has as parts of its core principles policies created by your own party, like the individual mandate and vouchers to assist those who can't afford to pay. I can understand how the ACA being based on an enormously successful and very similar program created by one of your own (Mitt Romney for those of you with selective amnesia) and praised by your own leaders as a model for the country could be the final straw that pushes you into the irrational apoplectic hatred that you and yours exhibit on a daily basis.
I know that you'd rather return things to the way they were before the ACA and I understand this as well. It's obviously so much better for the American people if the BIG BUSINESS...
*momentary pause to allow TPers to recover from the orgasms and genuflecting induced by the mention of those words*
...health insurance companies are allowed to arbitrarily refuse coverage and deny benefits for the most inane of reasons, or impose maximum coverage limits or any of the other financially motivated strategies used by insurance companies to avoid covering the health care they are paid to cover, and enabling them to spend the majority portion of their premium derived income on anything but paying for health care does so much good for the American people. Given this understanding of your plight I feel compelled to inform you of an easy, constitutionally mandated (I know how you all just love that Constitution!) method of eliminating Obamacare.
I refer to something that has existed for hundreds of years, an activity in which Republicans have repeatedly engaged since before our parents' parents' parents' etc... were born. It requires no grandstanding, no hostage taking, no intentionally inflicted damage to the country or its people or its economy. It occurs every four years like clockwork and it's called a “Presidential Election.” I'll explain how these work.
In early 2016 any and all Republicans meeting the Constitutionally mandated requirements will be given the chance to run for President of the United States. These candidates may then spend month after month and millions upon millions of dollars telling the country why none of them are fit to lead the country. They can do this for free because news cameras from around the country, and the world for that matter, will be pointed at them whenever they speak. While informing the world why none of the candidates from his or her own party are worthy of the Presidency any anti-ACA candidate can announce to the world that he or she will run on the platform of “killing Obamacare dead”. After all of the candidates have thoroughly discredited each other a process called “Primary Elections” occurs during which the candidates' supporters vote to determine which of the candidates is the least incompetent and least unworthy of the lot. The winner of this process then goes on to the general election where voters determine who gets to lead the country. Simple, right?
History shows that when the voting populace is dissatisfied with the party currently in power the candidate representing the opposing party wins the election, unless the opposing party are themselves viewed even less favorably. This shift tends to carry over to Congress and even state levels of government as well (see 2006 election results). If even a small fraction of the lies, twisted half-truths and misleading propaganda endlessly regurgitated by TEA Party sheep turn out to be true then the ACA will have been proven to be nothing but a dismal failure. The Democratic candidate, a member of the party from which the ACA originated, will have little chance of winning. At this point, if the American people have supported “kill Obamacare dead” as a platform, the anti-ACA party will have no problem accomplishing their goal. A bill to eliminate the ACA will sail through both houses of Congress and be signed into law by the President with no opposition of any relevance. All without any need for the theatrics, divisiveness, rhetoric and harm intentionally inflicted on the citizens of the USA that have characterized the acts (or lack thereof) of our paralyzed and unproductive Congress over the last 4 years and without continuing our government's role as the worldwide joke it has become. See how simple this is?
This method is highly preferable to the Grand Obstructionist Party's current policy of crying like little bitches when they lose while throwing a neverending temper tantrum until they get their way regardless of cost to the American people. To them, we the people are nothing more than collateral damage, 314 million acceptable losses, casualties of their “Party first, people last” policy. They have redefined the term “dereliction of duty.”
The proper and significantly more desirable method of ensuring that your party doesn't loathe every aspect of a law is to participate in its creation, debate its specifics as it's being written and be willing to compromise for the greater good. Had the GOP adopted this common sense strategy instead of the pigheaded obstructionist policy they used it would have likely resulted in a better ACA. There is definitely room for improvement in the current version and the cooperative participation of the GOP would have likely fixed much of this, their differing viewpoints and policies would have brought a different perspective to the table and likely caused discussion which would have resulted in solutions to some of these issues. But we'll never know, will we?
I'm not a fan of either party right now but I do agree with our President's stated policy of refusing to re-negotiate the terms of existing law as a means of allowing new law and policy to be formed. This would set a dangerous precedent of allowing the party rejected by the American people to force political concessions by threatening to undermine the stability and health of our nation and our people. Congress needs to step up and pay the bills incurred by the spending they approved, Republicans included. “Yes, by all means spend but don't expect us to pay for it unless you give us what we want” is not acceptable. Period.
You lost the last election, get over it. Rejoin reality, evaluate the causes of your loss and most importantly take responsibility for them. Stop listening to your clueless pundits' zillion and one excuses, your policies were rejected by the American people en masse. End of story. Learn the lessons, evolve the platform and try again, or like anything else that doesn't evolve as a means of adapting to change your party faces extinction, or at best, long term irrelevancy.
I will leave you with a quote from Republican Senator John McCain's response to the recent theatrics of Ted Cruz. “I’d remind my colleagues that, in the 2012 election, Obamacare, as it’s called — and I’ll be more polite, the ACA — was a subject that was a major issue in the campaign. I campaigned all over America for two months, everywhere I could. And in every single campaign rally I said ‘we had to repeal and replace Obamacare.’ Well, the people spoke. They spoke, much to my dismay, but they spoke and they re-elected the President of the United States. No that doesn’t mean that we give up our efforts to try to replace and repair Obamacare. But it does mean elections have consequences and those elections were clear, in a significant majority, that the majority of the American people supported the President of the US and renewed his stewardship of this country. I don’t like it, it’s not something that I wanted the outcome to be. But I think all of us should respect the outcome of elections, which reflects the will of the people.”
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